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The Closing of the (North) American Mind
The Closing of the (North) American Mind is an essay written by Robert Nielsen. He reviews a book by American Philosopher Allan Bloom in which he critiques the education system. Education Discusion Universities and colleges are to most people the way to a great life and career. The piece of paper that is your degree is what will lead you to become successful. But are universities preparing students for the real world? Universities are there to educate one so that are prepared to set out on a career that one would hope would be successful. Universities do a good job of training doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals. But Bloom argues that universities should also teach students the path of “the good life”. In this sense Universities are letting us down. Generally young people do not like to read and they only do so when they have to in school. Bloom claims that books are not a source of pleasure and that students do not believe that old books contain the answers to problems that concern us. Professors Werner J. Dannhauser and L. Pearce Williams at Cornell University asked the institution's president: If we prove to you that an Arts and Sciences student can now receive a B.A. degree at Cornell, and thus be presumed to have acquired a liberal education, without having been required to read a line of Plato, the Bible, Shakespeare, Marx or Einstein, would you consider this to be evidence that there is a crisis in education at Cornell? Such careers in universities are not only possible but common. Students have many course choices and can choose “easy” courses where they will not have to work and learn little. They will receive their degree but will not have a coherent knowledge of the subject. They can forgo studying any of the classic books. Bloom says that universities have accommodated themselves to the demands and tastes of the public and not to that which should be taught. Liberal education consists largely in studying the great books. To study these books is not easy. These books force us to confront issues that one wishes to avoid and without the study of these books, our collective intelligence is reduced. Some of these great books like but not limited to the bible, gave us a spiritual common ground. Universities studied this common ground and gave us sense of right and wrong. Now students come into universities with the belief that truth is relative. University’s public role previously was to be the reasoned conscience of public practice but know it only appears to serve the wishes of the public. Students assume that what is right and wrong now is only valid know and here. With this kind of mindset students can do as they please as long as they do not infringe on others right to do so also. Bloom say that this is not good because it leads to closed minds. Students are no longer interested in the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. This leads students to be content with what they know and won’t seek knowledge. Bloom says, “To deny the possibility of knowing good and bad is to suppress true openness.” The humanities should be the ones to lead us in the direction of right and wrong but they are in rough shape know. As said earlier they do not force us to come to read any classics and instead serve the public and offer “easy” course choices and because of this easy degrees also. As Bloom so eloquently put it, “The academic disorders of the sixties evoked reforms intended to conciliate student wishes rather than to serve their needs.” It is true that students are now studying again. Though they are not studying the humanities anymore. The humanities offer nothing now. There aren’t many jobs going around in the humanities and the humanities don’t offer them anything intellectually. For humanities to do that, they have to agree about the important questions in life and how to ask them. When such questions are asked students have a moment of self-awareness. This moment can be painful and one that we don’t want to face or one that is a moment of realization. It is often a bit of both but no one wants to be unaware of what they realized. This kind of realization is one where students seek self-improvement for them self and society at large. When one first reads The Great Gatsby they are faced with many issues like that of society and class and questions about the American Dream. These questions can be difficult to face as well as the characters because in many ways it is like looking in a mirror and not through a glass window. But these questions help us learn about ourselves and others. They force us to face tough issues. There are people that go through university and learn a lot, challenge themselves to think and come out knowing more about the world and themselves. If anyone wants this kind of education it is available but if one goes to university for that piece of paper to get them the job there is not much to that one will learn and change about the way they think.